Rappers guilty of murder plot

30 October 2009

Brandon Jolie

TWO teenage rappers who plotted to murder a pregnant 15 year-old girl when she refused to have an abortion are both facing life sentences.

Brandon Jolie, 19, who has worked with chart-topping grime star Tinchy Stryder, wanted the victim killed to stop her having his baby.

He recruited fellow musician Kingsley Ogundele, 19, during a six-hour online chat. The pair arranged to lure the girl to her death at the Regents Canal in Islington, north London, on December 12.

Ogundele, of Retford Road, Romford, battered the girl over the head with a metal pole, punched and kicked her and pushed her into the water.

She only survived because a passer-by interrupted the attack as Ogundele held her head under the water.

The girl, who was 24 weeks pregnant but did not suffer any lasting injury, told police: "I thought I was going to die. I could feel myself giving up."

Jolie, of Redwood Close, Bow, east London, known on the music scene as Maniac, had already admitted conspiracy to murder.

His friend Ogundele, known as Snoopy Montana, was convicted of the same charge on Tuesday after a trial at the Old Bailey. He had denied the charge.

Judge Paul Worsley QC remanded Ogundele in custody and will sentence the teenagers on a date to be fixed next month.

Both Ogundele and Jolie were well known on the grime rap scene.

Ogundele had appeared on YouTube being interviewed for an online programme known as the "Grime Forum".

Jolie boasted that his music had been used by Nike, in the film Adulthood and in BBC1 soap opera EastEnders.

Jolie had been in a relationship with the victim until August last year, but they split up after she discovered she was pregnant.

He had tried to persuade her to have an abortion and told her that if his mother found out she would stop paying for his tuition fees, but she decided to keep the baby.

On October 19 last year Jolie began complaining to Ogundele about the girl's behaviour during a chat on the MSN chat service.

The conversation had to be translated by police because of its use of internet and youth slang.

Prosecutor Vivek D'Cruz said: "What those translations reveal is the appallingly casual and callous ways these two feral youths quickly plot ways to murder the teenager.

"The detail of the emails also reveals the casual and callous extent to which these two were prepared to go to get rid of the girl and her baby.

"Ogundele and Jolie perceived this to be nothing more than an irritating, inconvenient problem. A problem that simply had to be eliminated."

In the chat, Ogundele wrote: 'F*** her she's a little slag. She will keep it. Don't let her get you. She's a pr*ck. Listen I will f***ing kill her.'

Jolie later replied: "I don't care if she lives or dies because the consequences of her having a child are too big for me to handle."

At one point Ogundele claimed he could find an addict to do it for some crack cocaine and said: "What if I get the addict to better the baby out of her?"

He added: "I will get the addict to duppy her then."

Jurors were told duppy is Jamaican patois for ghost or spirit and can be used as a verb meaning to kill.

But the pair interrupted their chat to discuss the next episode of the BBC drama Heroes and so Ogundele could be interviewed by a grime website about his first album It's A Dog Eat Dog World.

"One of the chilling parts of this clear plan of murder is the seamless way these two youths move from the talk of conspiracy to murder to talk of things such as Heroes, light entertainment and popular culture," said the prosecutor.